Hard-Hitting Gonzalez No Longer a One-Trick Pony
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Before this year, Fernando Gonzalez was a novelty on the professional tennis tour. Every tournament, the Chilean could be counted on for a few victories, lots of grunts and groans, and many, many tennis balls struck at speeds one might think unreachable without the aid of an aluminum baseball bat.
Gonzalez still strikes his forehand as powerfully as anyone in the world, but these days he does much more. Since he began working with Larry Stefanki — the former coach of Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and John McEnroe — this spring, Gonzalez has become a more patient player. He worries less about hitting backhands, his weaker stroke, and slices quite effectively. His serve, predictably flat and hard in the past, now often slices and kicks, preventing his opponents from finding a rhythm.Most impressive of all, he often sneaks forward for a volley.
For Gonzalez, Stefanki could not have come along at a better time. At 26 years old, the Chilean could have played four or five more years on the tour as a one-trick pony, perhaps adding a few titles to his current total of seven. He would have almost no chance, though, of competing at the most prestigious tournaments, as he has done consistently this year (he has reached three semifinals at Masters events, and one final, under Stefanki’s tutelage).
Yesterday, the new Gonzalez put on a fine display for a set against Roger Federer in the final of the Madrid Masters, the first Masters final of Gonzalez’s career. A day earlier, he dumped Tomas Berdych, the 6-foot-5 Czech who plays like the old Gonzalez: all power, no panache. Berdych’s slugging worked well enough against Rafael Nadal, whose habit of retreating five feet behind the baseline gave Berdych too much time to unleash his strokes, which are unwieldy at times. Gonzalez played him close and upset his timing, winning 6–3, 6–1.
Federer arrived in the final after a 6–4, 6–0 drubbing of David Nalbandian (more on the disappointing, and increasingly annoying, Nalbandian below). He started slowly yesterday, however, and neither player faced a break point until Federer converted his second one to win the set 7–5 (Gonzalez saved the first with a fine volley as Federer gave his fans a scare when he rolled over on his right ankle; he did not sustain an injury).
A 7–5 set: that was the good news for Gonzalez. The bad news? Federer remains miles and miles ahead of him. The world no. 1 won the last 11 games of the match, finishing off his 10th title of the year by the score of 7–5, 6–1, 6–0. He is the first man to win 10 titles in a season for three consecutive years.
While Federer was near flawless in the final two sets yesterday (surprise, surprise), Gonzalez played with little confidence and seemed to believe that he was not fit enough, physically or mentally, to recover (he also received treatment for an arm injury). Stefanki will undoubtedly be upset by a score that should not have been so lopsided. His pupil now has an outside chance of qualifying for the season-ending Masters Cup, despite not having won a title this season. His performance last week put him in ninth place, 33 points behind Tommy Robredo and 34 behind James Blake, who has withdrawn from this week’s tournament in Basel, Switzerland (Federer’s home town) because of tonsillitis. Gonzalez is the defending champion in Basel (Federer injured his ankle last year and did not play); if he wins again, he would collect 40 points. Another 100 points are up for grabs at the Paris Masters the following week.
If the final of this event lacked drama, the rest of the week did not. Several top players, including Nadal, Ivan Ljubicic, Blake, and Andy Roddick, were upset. Nadal told the Spanish press that Berdych was “stupid” for asking the partisan crowd to quiet down (that’s what home fans are for, Nadal said). More entertaining still, Nalbandian fought off two near upsets against Marat Safin and Tim Henman and continued his recent habit of running his mouth.
The match against Henman included several questionable calls (it was not played on a court with instant replay). On one, a Nalbandian first serve that was called out, Nalbandian asked Henman if he thought the ball was good (yes) and if he would agree to replay the point (no).The score was 5–5,15–30, in the third set, and an angry Nalbandian rose to the occasion and won, saving two break points in that game. But he stooped low after the match, saying that Henman’s reputation as an honorable sportsman was bogus, and calling the Brit “the worst rubbish.”
Please. Professional tennis is played by the calls made on court, and no player should be expected to overturn a bad call on his own (Roddick did just that last year in a more comfortable situation — up triple match point — and the tennis Gods taught him a lesson by allowing Fernando Verdasco to score an improbable victory). It wasn’t unsporting for Henman to say no; it was unsporting for Nalbandian to ask for a favor in the heat of a close match.
Nalbandian talked a lot of trash during the Davis Cup semifinal against Australia, and he backed it up. Considering the year he’s having, however, he’s in no position to brag. Many believed the Argentine would at last blossom this season after he won the Masters Cup last year in five sets over Federer. Instead, he failed to deliver in the semifinals of two Grand Slams this year (he lost in the second and third rounds of the other two) and he remains out of shape (observe his potbelly).
Gonzalez, if he qualifies for the Masters, would be the perfect player to take Nalbandian down a peg before Argentina travels to Russia for the Davis Cup final. Here’s hoping his right arm is not too tired for Basel.